FIVE COLLEGE MOVERS LLC

After getting information from me on the phone (that I had 2 bedrooms, 5 dressers, a large shelf unit, an office desk and 20 boxes), two college kids show up on the moving day. They showed up 45 min late, they only had one trolley between them, they had no idea how to disassemble my shelf unit nor either of my beds. I have moved in the past and taking apart those exact same pieces took the mover about 15-20 min each. I wish I was exaggerating but they spent at least 2 hours collectively staring at my beds or my shelf unit. (I ended up taking apart one of the beds and a big portion of the shelf unit). Moreover, the truck they had didn't fit all my things (they had other trucks that do apparently but didn't think the items described above needed a bigger truck) so they had to do 2 trips. Best of all, my wooden coffee table was scratched, my shelf unit had screws ripped out of the sides (thankfully don't show) and scratches on the cupboards (that do show), one lamp was broken, my indoors clothes hanger was so bent out of shape it was rendered useless and I threw it away. I showed it to one of the kids but it was the end of the day and we were all beyond exhausted. They eventually left at 10:30pm (arrived at 9:15am) The sad part is that the two college kids, as inexperienced as they are, felt bad throughout all of this. They made multiple phone calls to the owner to get back up. They also made phone calls asking at least for a discounted price because they realized that the total number of hours they spent was not reflective of what needed to happen. Apparently the owner didn't care at all and said to charge me full price, for a total of 13.5 hours of moving. Oh and some of the time I was charged for included lunch breaks/snack breaks because I didn't think it was humanly possibly to work this long without a break so I brought the two kids pizza. We spent 40 min sitting around eating pizza and I was charged for that time as well. The kids were polite and pleasant and they did do the best they could with the limited resources they had. (One trolley!) I think a major miscommunication happened while I called for an estimate as both of them were surprised at what they found in my house. They even had a job scheduled for 3pm that day and had to cancel. I think the company should have been more responsive either in sending in help or reducing what they charged me. Apparently there are options for how many movers you want at a time at different hourly rates but I was not given those options when I called. I did call the owner at the end of that day to discuss the above but couldn't get through. Apparently he sleeps early (with employees still at a job). After filling out an online survey by their company (saying pretty much what I said here) I got emails and phone calls from the owner to talk about it and fill a claims form. We played phone tag for a few weeks (I'm not sure why we kept missing each other) and eventually we stopped trying to reach each other. To contrast, I moved here from Canada (with the same furniture) 4 years ago. Someone arrived ahead of time to give me an estimate. The movers knew exactly what they were doing and took everything apart effortlessly. Five men showed up. There was no time wasted sitting around trying to come up with a plan (while charging per hour). It cost me the same amount of money to move from 5 hours away as it did to move from holyoke to Northampton. Unless you have a small number of pre-packed items that don't include fragiles then this is NOT the company to use!

They were very friendly, but very inefficient. There was some mis-information and so I had to call back and forth to get correct information. It ended up taking hours longer than it should have.

Very professional and careful. Everything was smooth and done in a timely manner.

It was a very hot day and the crew worked efficiently and with good spirits. One shelf was damaged from boxes which were too heavy to be placed on it.

They were extremely fast and careful and it was an appallingly hot day, but they did not slow down. The move was complex and I had an orderly plan, but they took charge and it went fine. Nothing got damaged.

They were very careful with my things and were very professional. There was 4 guys total and one of the guys was in the truck packing everything very well and using every inch of the truck and supervising the others. I had contacted Patrick, at the company, a year prior when I originally put my home on the market. He had come out then and took a look at things. Then he came out again here more recently because I finally got the home sold. He did a walk through for a better estimate. He was very hands on, professional and polite.

We had called this mover approximately 3 weeks ago to get a quote for moving a safe. They didn't have anyone available for a couple of weeks so said to call back if we still needed them. We called twice-once on 5/31/13 and again on 6/3/13 and they never returned our call as of today 6/9/13.

From beginning to end Five College Movers were professional and responsive. I had to change the date of my move several times and they were fine with that. On the day of the move it was just myself and the movers. They were very careful and helpful with everything I asked them to do. The apartment I moved into had very tiny doorways and it was a challenge to fit some of the pieces of furniture in but they got it all in. They were caring and courteous and I felt everything was well taken care of.

Finally spoke with Pat 10 days after my review. He says they called and left a message several hours later after I left my message, I can't find any record on my phone bill of them ever calling. Pat finally called me after my review here and still swears he called and left a message. I will give them a better rating than I first did because he was very apologeticand really wanted to help. Unfortunately the move had already taken place.

Things went great, they were very careful, and they did everything they had to do to get the job done. We would use them in the future. They weer very effiicent, and reasonably priced.

After contacting the service, I got a confirmation from Pat, who met me at my apartment, and the storage facility. He gave me an estimate of how long the move would take, size truck, and cost. Pat shared a story how he had just moved a customer from Amherst to Florida...not the town Florida, MA but the state of Florida. I was impressed! We ended up rescheduling the original appointment, and Pat was consistently keeping me informed of any changes in the plan. The two fellows who did the moving were prepared, professional, and thorough. They asked questions about location of boxes and furniture. I would recommend Five College Movers for anyone needing a moving company. Another plus is that they are locally owned, and employ current and recent students from the Five Colleges, supporting our local economy and intellect too!

When we had a slight problem with a box spring not fitting up the stairs ,they were very accommodating and and returned the box spring to the original spot . They were all very pleasant.

Professional movers Ben and Jose made the move painless and with humor and delight. Patrick came over estimated and got back to us within that day. I will refer these movers to anyone that asks and like I said made the move very enjoyable, Now if they only put everything away things would be perfect.

The movers were professional, neat, efficient and very pleasant to work with. They communicated well, confirming the move the day before.

Holyoke. My experience with the movers was somewhat mixed. Two people came to move my furniture and one of them was extremely profesional, nice, and hard-working and the other one barely spoke, often didn't seem to listen when asking where I wanted things, and was not as careful with moving things. Ultimately they did a good job, but there were some bumps in the road. They scratched the floor of the old place, but offered to take responsibility for it, if need be (which didn't end up being the case as my old landlord didn't charge me for it). When I went back to the old place to finish cleaning I noticed they left two chairs just on the curb. Thankfully they were not expensive and no one took them.

The move went very well. The men showed up slightly early and worked very hard. They loaded my truck very neatly and made sure everything was properly secured. They were done on time & didn't leave a mess, even though it rained all the time they were loading the truck.

Great see above on there services! Highly recommend!

I would use them again and I would recommend them...I would just make sure we were all on the same page about times.

I can't give a better endorsement than to say we hired Pat's moving company for the second time in three years. The first time was a complicated move from a storage unit in NJ where we stored our furniture and goods for two years while living overseas. On the hottest day of that summer, the movers Pat sent to meet us were prompt, efficient, polite, and strong as oxen. We only just opened the fragile boxes they moved three years ago, then again this week; not a single thing was broken. We'd done all our own packing for that move and this last one, but they took heed of the "Fragile" stickers while carrying those boxes and placing them in the truck. Pat's guys wrapped several pieces of furniture, one of which is a handmade tiger maple shaker table I'm very attached to and treated it as if it were made out of eggs! The table came out of the wrappings as if it had never left our original house. We saved money and time by doing our own careful packing. On the move last week, we stacked as many boxes as we could in central parts of "staging areas" in three of the rooms so the movers could save on time. The two strong young men (UMASS hockey players who seem to have been raised by Miss Manners) just smoothly went from room to room and emptied the house in a couple hours. At the receiving end, they took an hour. So we came in a hundred dollars under budget. I really need to repeat what I've said in other reviews: businesses that are responsive to customers, answer e-mails and phone calls, send over people who know what they're doing and do it well get my raves and word of mouth to friends and family. Five College Movers did an incredible job.

I was very pleased with their work.

What happened: Two young men in their 20's showed up, loaded up the truck for about 45 minutes with the big quoted items and they still had time and tons of truck room. They said it wouldn't be long to unload, and it was only a 5 minute car ride. I had been packing smaller boxes for my car and they offered to take pillows and books and small things- so they did and I thought that was great. They packed another 15 minutes all my little boxes to save me they car ride. When we got to the new place, they accidentally got grease all over the rugs up the stairs from their dolly...When they finished unpacking, I said "Where is my desk?" They realized they had forgotten to pack the desk- the desk and hutch were still at my old house. So instead I had my pillows and clothes of which I could have moved myself. There was no way I was going to be able to move this desk on my own, they told me that they could go back and get it, but it was going to cost another $100 for time and travel and they were at the end of their day so they would need to call and get paid overtime etc. They made me feel REALLY guilty for asking them to get my desk. I ended up letting them leave, I felt bad. Somehow I even managed to give them the $80 tip I had already calculated. I regretted this when I saw they greasy rug marks and it really sunk in about the $500 desk I no longer had. I ended up selling it on craigslist to a guy who could come pick it up right away since I couldn't move it. It cost me a lot.

He e-mail me when he got in. I picked this outfit because of Angie's

Everything moved, nothing broken and within 10% of estimate. I would highly recommend them to others and certainly use them again if needed.

They were excellent. The price was good. They did not dilly-dally. They came on time and worked until the work was done. The estimate was very, very close to what I paid. They were very polite young men. I would absolutely use them again.

Since this was a long distance move, the movers drove down the day before so that they could be at the house bright and early on moving day. They were right on time and called to tell me to expect them at the appointed time. When they arrived, they put mats down to protect the floors and padded the doorway woodwork, which I was very pleased about. They were going to be moving quite a few family heirloom furniture pieces that I was anxious about, and they put me at ease with their care for the house. They wrapped the furniture so well, and not a single item was damaged, even the one enormous dresser they had to wrangle up the very narrow stairs to my second storey. The move itself was quick yet careful. I was having them deliver some items to a storage unit, some to my barn, and some to my house, and they took great care to get everything loaded on the truck in order, even though I'd run out of steam the day before when I was organizing it in the house for them, so things were less than perfectly arranged and kind of hard to keep track of. The movers were super friendly and cheerful despite the awful heat and humidity, and very polite and respectful. Despite not being able to see what they were moving to give me a quote, they came in right on the nose, no doubt due to the serious hustling they did. They didn't pause once in the loading and unloading. I highly recommend them.